Experimental Analysis of the Bond Behavior of Glass, Carbon, and Steel FRCM Composites

In recent decades, the construction industry has witnessed a rapid growth of interest in strengthening and retrofitting of existing reinforced concrete (RC) and masonry structures. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have gained great popularity, and several studies are now available in the literature on their use in strengthening and retrofit applications. Promising newly-developed composite materials are represented by the so-called fiber reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites. FRCM composites are comprised of high strength fibers embedded within a cementitious matrix that is responsible for the stress transfer between the existing structure and the strengthening material. FRCM composites are still in their infancy, and very limited results are available in the literature on RC and masonry strengthening applications. This study presents an experimental campaign conducted on different FRCM composites comprised of glass, carbon, or steel fibers embedded within two different cementitious matrices and applied to concrete prisms. The single-lap direct-shear test was used to study the stress-transfer mechanism between the FRCM composite and the concrete substrate. Two different composite bonded lengths were investigated. Debonding occurred at the matrix-fiber interface for some of the composites tested and at the concrete-matrix interface for others. This work contributes to the study of the bond behavior of FRCM composites, which represents a key issue for the effectiveness of FRCM composite strengthening.